- Colorado changed its plate rules after automated readers repeatedly confused O and 0.
- The mistakes have reportedly led to wrong tickets, toll bills, and even traffic stops.
- The question may be why enforcement systems acted on uncertain reads in the first place.
Update: The Colorado DMV reached out with further information about the situation. We’ve updated the piece to include some of its statements.
Getting a speeding ticket for a town you’ve never visited is frustrating. Getting one for a car you don’t even own raises a much bigger question, like why did the system think it was your vehicle in the first place? That’s what Coloradans are trying to sort out as officials say they’re fixing the issue by changing plates. Of course, it’s also worth asking if it’s the cameras that deserve the criticism since they’re the tech that created the issue in the first place.
State officials acknowledge that automated license plate readers have struggled to distinguish between the letter “O” and the number “0” on some plates. The problem has reportedly resulted in mistaken speeding tickets, toll charges, parking citations, and multiple traffic stops involving innocent drivers. How the officers involved in those stops struggled to read the plates for themselves is up for debate as well.
A Letter, A Number, And A Lot Of Wrong Tickets
At first glance, this sounds like a license plate design story. Colorado switched to a four-letter, two-number format in 2018, placing letters and numbers on the same side of the plate and creating situations where an O and a zero could appear in similar positions. The DMV tells Carscoops that it “stopped issuing the letter “O” strictly in the fourth position back in 2024,” and that “it was a proactive administrative adjustment designed to prevent characters from being misread by law enforcement (particularly out-of-state agencies), not a sudden cover-up for faulty AI.”
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But the people aren’t the problem here. Outside of those officers who pulled over the wrong cars, humans generally don’t seem to be the ones having trouble. According to a 9NEWS investigation, the confusion largely stems from automated plate-reading systems used by municipalities, toll operators, parking enforcement companies, and law enforcement agencies.
In one recent case, a driver received a photo-radar citation from a town more than two hours away despite driving a completely different vehicle than the one pictured. Once again, the apparent reason was a plate-reading error involving a single character.
Colorado Fixed The Plates, Not The Cameras
To fix the issue, Colorado officials didn’t work to fix the cameras. Instead, they stopped issuing plates with the letter O in the fourth position. If you happen to have an older plate with an O in that space, that doesn’t help much.
To its credit, the DMV also tweaked the plate font to better separate the O from the zero and says it works with agencies to calibrate their readers. It also tells Carscoops that “the Colorado DMV does not own, operate, or control any license plate readers.” So, in other words, it can’t do anything to directly fix the root issue even if it wanted to. The response effectively acknowledges that the technology has limitations and while the DMV might not have direct power to change the software, let’s not pretend that it’s powerless either.
If state officials knew these mix-ups were happening, it’s worth asking what else could have been done. Did the DMV formally notify agencies about the problem? Did it recommend additional verification before tickets were issued? Did it urge law enforcement and toll operators to review systems known to confuse legal plate characters? Those questions seem particularly relevant given that the state changed its own plate-issuance practices in response to the issue. We’ve asked the DMV for these details.
Yet rather than forcing every plate-reading system to improve, the state adjusted how some future plates are issued. For drivers who have spent years disputing toll bills or tickets tied to misread plates, that may feel like treating the symptom rather than the cause.
